Batting

WEST HAVEN, Conn. – After dropping the opener, 13-5, in five innings, the Saint Anselm College softball team led Adelphi, 7-2, in game two, but the Panthers rallied to force a 7-7 tie when the game was called due to darkness on Saturday afternoon at New Haven Softball Field.

In the opener, Saint Anselm (13-7-1, 0-1-1 NE10) scored twice in the fop of the first, but Adelphi (7-11-1, 1-0-1 NE10) plated seven in the bottom of the inning and went on to defeat the Hawks, 13-5. Nicole Camera was 4-for-4 with three runs and two RBI to pace the Panthers, while Emily Turney went 2-for-3 with a run and four RBI.

Colson plated Maggie Murphy and Amanda Bickford with a two-out, two-run triple down the right-field line in the top of the first to give the Hawks a very early lead. The lead was short-lived, however, as the Panthers scored seven in the bottom of the frame, with Turney and Krista King each delivering two-run singles in the big inning.

After Adelphi tacked on a run in the second, Murphy scored her second run of the game in the third, coming around on a two-out double to left by Murrell, which came after Murphy singled and stole second. Turney recorded her second two-run single of the game in a four-run bottom of the third for the Panthers, as the home team went ahead, 12-3.

Coming to bat with runners on second and third and one out, O'Connor knocked in Erin Thompson, who had a pair of hits in the game, with a single through the left side in the top of the fourth. The Hawks added another run on an error in the inning, but a Camera RBI single in the bottom of the fourth helped Adelphi end the game after four and a half innings.

Jessica Vadala earned her first win of the season for Adelphi, despite yielding three runs (two earned) in four innings of relief.

Saint Anselm used back-to-back three-run innings in the second and third to create a 7-2 lead in the nightcap, only for Adelphi to rally with two in the fourth and three in the sixth before the teams ran out of daylight. The tie was the first for the Hawks in 373 games dating back to a 7-7 deadlock at UMass Lowell on Mar. 25, 2009.

O'Connor slugged a three-run home run in the second and senior Shannon McLaughlin knocked in a pair with a two-out single in the third, while Bickford was 2-for-4 with a run scored. Eight Adelphi hitters recorded hits in the game, including two-hit efforts from Christina Rizzi, Kailah Konkel and Lauren O'Neill.

Adelphi opened up a 2-0 lead in the home half of the first, scoring on two-out RBI singles by Camera and Rizzi. Saint Anselm overturned the deficit in the next half inning when O'Connor hit a one-out, three-run shot to left center for her second-career home run, the first since her freshman season.

With one run in already in the top of the third, McLaughlin provided some separation with a two-out, two-run single to left to score Thompson and Colson. Bickford scored on a wild pitch in the fourth to put the Hawks ahead, 7-2, but an infield single and an errant throw led to two Adelphi runs in the bottom of the frame.

With daylight running out, the Panthers knotted the game at 7-7 in the home half of the sixth. With the bases loaded and one out, O'Neill singled in Rizzi and King followed with a two-run single up the middle to tie it up. Michaela Kane threw out the go-ahead run at the plate for the second out of the sixth to keep the game tied on a grounder off the bat of Nicoletta Cuccio.

Courtney Fisher threw all six innings in the circle for the Hawks, while Ally Muller and Nicole Mengel each logged three innings for Adelphi. Mengel surrendered just one run after taking over to start the fourth.

Saint Anselm is right back at it on Sunday, Mar. 25 with a doubleheader at Pace University starting at 2 p.m.

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